, 1887-12-31
CUSTOM HOUSE CLERKS.
Difficulty OF Computing Compound Duties.
Driven Mind by Figures.


There is one department in the custom
house for which there are not many as
pirants, though the pay is good 1t is the
liquidating department. The work is
hard and puzzRng, and it requires a man
of peculiar temperament to make his way
in it. The liquidating office Is sle place
where the final calculation of the duties
to be paid on imported goods is made.
When the goods are first entered n rough
estimate of the duties ms per invoice is
made and the duties are deposited Then,
after the work of the surveyors office is
completed and the appraiser has examined
the goods and placed on the invoices their
classification and rate of duty, the work
Of the ~liquidating office begins.
One OF the ~liquidating clerks, In speak
ing to n reporter about the work of the
Office, said:
TO one who is not acquainted by act
ual experience with the work, it is n hard
matter to explain 1t. ] have never known
such difficult work. In the first place the
invoices come to you in every known Ian
guagc, and the measures of quantity and
value are expressed in the same tongue as
that in which the invoice is written. All
these, in the first place, have to be re
duced to American measures and values,
and is trying work. Then n man in our
department has to be II walking encyclo-
pCdia of commercial and trade TECHNICAL
ties.
zone of the most puzzling things in
Our work is the figuring out of the duty
on articles which pay n compound AK.
Take for instance dress goods. The tax
is D cents IL yard and 35 per cent. ad
vnlOrcm, or 7Ceuts n yard and 40 per cent,
according to whether the value is over or
under 20 cents n yard. Say we have n
consignment of / 900 yards of dress goods
from England which are billed in the in
voice ut . shillings and @ pence, less 1877,
n fnvorite discount less 5 per cent, less 9
per cent, and with charges say of E12.
The charges must be deducted and dis
counts taken Off in order to find out just
what the cost per yard is, and on this the
duty is assessed. This is II simple opera
ton compared to many we have.
On all worsted goods there is n specific
and ad valorcm duty for goods Weighing
under four ounces n yard, and another
for goods over four ounces, and on some
other wooden goods we have to find out
whether they cost 40, 60 or 80 cents n
pound, because different rates of duty are
charged. / nave had sometimes to make
AS many MS twenty-five different calcutta
tons to ascertain what the rate of duty
was on n certain line of goods. We can't
go by the appraisers calculation at all;
his work il done hurriedly in many cases,
and we cam afford to trust him.
About the most tedious work we have
IL on invoices of glass. 1t comes in all
sizes and weights, and there is n different
duty for each size and weight. | nave
known of invoices that required the max
ing Of 10000 figures to ascertain the duty.
Sugar is another tedious article to figure
ON. 1t is graded by polariscope test, and n
different rate Of duty is charged for every
degree above 10.
wines, liquors and tobacco all nave
compound duties, which, ms l said, give
us the hardest work. The work never
gets easy, rs puzzlers are liable to como
up Mt any time. There are men in the
Office who ave been there fifteen years,
and they will frequently come across some
thing in an invoice which they nave never
met before. 1t is like sitting down to
solve n Chinese puzzle and keering at 1t
for eight or ten hours every day.
at helps n man very little to be d
mathematician. Young Mather, who
committed suicide, was in the office, and
was n splendid mathematician, but he was
of n nervous temperament, and l don't
doubt that puzzling over some of those in
fernal over or under four ounce invoices
drove him crazy. New York Press.